


Let's Not Understand Together

by raggirare



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, voice actor au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2030859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raggirare/pseuds/raggirare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was only one person in the entire industry that Sousuke had picked to never work on this sort of project. He'd never been wrong before.</p><p>Written for a prompt: voice actor AU in which they know each other working in a yaoi anime or a drama CD and then... they get to know each other even better</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Not Understand Together

It’s far from the first time that Sousuke’s worked on a project like this, and he knows that it will be far from his last, because if there’s one well known name in this part of the industry, it’s his. Sure, a lot of people would probably be dead embarrassed to be popular for lending their voice to a main character in multiple BL and yaoi anime and drama CDs - and there was that one time he somehow got talked into taking part in a live action movie - but for Yamazaki Sousuke, it was just a part of the job.

He’s done other jobs, as well; much less rated pieces of work on more mainstream projects with more mainstream-style seiyuus and he’s just as comfortable there as he is anywhere else. His workmates seem just as comfortable when they’re gathered in a recording room and no one else seems to bat an eyelid at his apparent specialty - though he’s not above putting that down to Japanese politeness.

Sousuke had a little game when it came to the voice actors that he worked with on shonen and shoujo productions. It was a game he played in his head and it had no real title, because it was quite simple - a guessing game based on observation and experience.

_Will he agree to work on a BL anime?_

So far, he had been right every time. Every actor he worked with on BL and yaoi projects - the ones he had worked on ‘regular’ projects with, at least - were all people he had pegged to be the sort to agree to take part in that line of work. Of course some leaned more towards the softer Boys’ Love side of things, but Sousuke had still managed to pick out those who ended up working with him for even the raunchiest scenes in a yaoi production.

He was on a roll. He had a good, strong winning streak.

'Had' being the operative word.

It all came grinding to a halt when Sousuke watched the door of the recording studio open to green eyes and olive hair and a gentle smile and an apologetic laugh and he actually had to check the screen in front of the microphones to make sure he was actually in the right place for the right show, because if there was one single voice actor in the entire industry that Sousuke had been so sure would never even  _consider_  a role like this, it was Tachibana Makoto.

He was a golden boy amongst their profession, an actor who everyone enjoyed to work with and with a versatile voice that everyone seemed to love, and Sousuke wasn’t normally the sort to fall for the sweet kind but even he would find his knees going weak when that bright smile was directed at him if he wasn’t prepared.

And this time, he  _really wasn’t._

—-

"You what?"

Makoto let a sheepish laugh escape and he ducked his head, a shoulder shrugging as he stumbled over words, acting far from the seemingly perfect man that Sousuke had seen any other time he’d worked with him. “I wanted to ask for some advice,” he repeated and lifted his head to meet the taller male’s eyes, cheeks dusted pink with embarrassment. “Usually I’m okay with my roles, because it’s stuff I’ve experienced myself, or it’s stuff I can freely imagine, but something like…  _this_ , I’m not so good with.”

Sousuke stared blankly at his colleague, trying to make sense of what he was trying to say. He thought back to the reading practice they had spent the afternoon doing, and the scenes they had gone over, and he couldn’t recall any point where Makoto had seemed to stumble over the lines or lose the direction the director was after - at least, nothing more than what one would expect from the very first script reading.

Except for that one section that they had been just about to start and Makoto had distracted them, and had continued to distract them from to focus on other, earlier parts under the impression of wanting to perfect everything there first.

Thinking back, it was rather out of character.

It hit Sousuke a minute later.

"The sex scene?" He asked, eyes slightly widened in some sort of shock.

The tint on Makoto’s cheek darkened almost instantly, but he managed to hold Sousuke’s gaze and nod. “Wha—” He swallowed around a lump in his throat and willed the redness on his cheeks down as best he could. “What should I do?”

"Get laid?" was the first answer to Sousuke’s mind. "Watch porn," was the second, but it was followed by a quick correction of, "No. Don’t watch porn. It’s meant to be a loving and gentle ‘first time’ scene. Porn won’t help."

Makoto sighed and ran a hand through his hair, the red almost gone from his cheeks. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taken this role,” he murmured under his breath, barely loud enough for Sousuke to catch it. “They had some really good other names lined up.”

"Yeah, well, you’re committed now so we’ll just have to figure something out," Sousuke folded his arms across his chest. He definitely would have preferred to have someone a little more confident and experienced as a co-star - not that he’d ever actually thought of Makoto as being self-conscious in the slightest - but he also wasn’t one to let other people give up. "We’ll get the other parts perfect first and then we’ll worry about this part."

—-

For the most part, the things progressed rather smoothly. Sousuke found it incredibly easy to work alongside Makoto - though that wasn’t surprising - and the director didn’t actually seem too worried about skipping over the two sex scenes in order to focus on the establishment of the characters’ relationship and the surrounding world.

Sousuke took it upon himself to do extra research outside of practices, searching through previous works he had done for potential inspiration for Makoto to use to help him get through the scenes he was having trouble with. They did readings together after hours, swapping whose apartment they would practice at and taking turns to cook each other dinner - though Makoto’s usually ended up being some sort of takeout, At one point, after almost four weeks, Sosuke gave in and turned towards porn in search of something that might be appropriate - though it was ultimately unproductive and he ended up with his hand past the waistband of his pants multiple times, though even just once was enough for him to decide searching for porn the next time Makoto came over wouldn’t end well.

If the director had any suspicions about Makoto’s discomfort, he never addressed it. He would easily let them skip over the sex scenes at Makoto’s request to focus on other parts, and once they had most of the script down with intonations and feeling, Makoto managed to avoid them yet again by asking to wait to see the actual scene when they did the first dry run to get a proper feel for what was actually happening.

And, when they did exactly that two days later, Makoto had smiled his perfect smile as if everything was okay and Sousuke was left wondering for the nth time how his co-worker was managing to get away with this so easily.

\- - -

"Tachibana?" Sousuke let a frustrated sigh escape as he rounded another corner and glanced along the length of the corridor he found himself on. They had finished for day ten minutes ago and they were meant to be heading back to Sousuke’s apartment because it was his turn to host and cook, but Makoto had disappeared and no one had seen hide nor hair of him, save one of the producers who had seen Makoto disappear down a hall. "Oi, Tachibana?"

That was where Sousuke was now, heading through the various hallways that wound through the second floor of the studio building, glancing into open rooms and asking people as he passed them. He was on the verge of simply giving up and going home alone when he heard a muffled sound, something almost like a… sob?

"…Tachibana?" Sousuke’s tone was wary as he glanced towards a nearby door - it was pushed to but not entirely closed - and slowly pushed it open, peering inside. "Oi, Tachibana, are you okay?"

A surprised Makoto lifted his head before he ducked it again when he realized who had found him, and the following few seconds were spent rubbing his hands over his face and then his fingers into his hair. When he next lifted his head, it was with a gentle smile.

"Yamazaki-kun, I’m sorry," He said with a sheepish - and forced - laugh, slowly standing from the chair he had been sitting on. "I made you come looking for me, didn’t I? I’m sorry."

Sousuke wasn’t an idiot. He knew exactly what Tachibana had been doing in the moments before he had arrived, and the wetness in the other actor’s eyes was evidence enough of it, and there was a question sitting on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down and instead just shook his head.

"It’s fine."

\- - - 

"Yamazaki-kun, what—"

"Sit."

"Wh—"

"Makoto.  _Sit._ ”

Makoto conceded - possibly mostly because of the fact Sousuke had actually used his given name despite being given permission weeks ago - and did as he was told, taking a seat on the sofa and watching as Sousuke finished getting everything ready for… whatever it was he was getting ready for. He placed a DVD into the player and opened the lids on the three boxes of pizza on the table pushed closer to the sofa so they wouldn’t have to reach as far, topped up both of their glasses with wine before the taller male finally sat down with a remote in his hand.

"Can you speak French?" Sousuke asked with a glance in Makoto’s direction before he reached forward to grab two slices of the nearest pizza, offering one in the other’s direction.

"Wha—" Makoto blinked before he gave a shake of his head and accepted the pizza. "No, I can’t."

"Oh, good," Taking a bite of the pizza and hitting the play button on the remote. "We can enjoy not understanding what’s going on together."

Makoto blinked again but he didn’t question it - yet - and instead decided to just enjoy the pizza he had been given, and then his drink when he reached forward to pick it up before he settled back into the couch and simply watched.

They didn’t talk much for most of the movie, except to discuss what they thought was going on. About half an hour in, Makoto realized why Sousuke had chosen this particular film. Despite being in another language and unable to understand the specifics of what was going on, he could pick out enough from the visuals, the music and even the vocal tones that the story wasn’t far off what the story of their current project was - complete with a gay main couple.

And a sweet and slow first-time sex scene that left Makoto flushed and hiding his face in the closest thing - Sousuke’s shoulder.

He kept it there until the scene was over, and even a little longer past that to try and will the last of the flush away, but when he tried to pull away, Sousuke shifted and suddenly there was an arm around Makoto’s shoulders, keeping him from moving. The insisted closeness was strange, but not in a bad way; only because in all their weeks together on this project, and all the projects they’d worked on together over their years actors, they had never really broken many formalities, and Sousuke’s previous use of Makoto’s given name had been the first.

 _Progress_ , Makoto called it in his head, and he curled up a little to make himself more comfortable against the other man’s side to watch the rest of the movie. 

"My first role I had with a sex scene in it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done," Sousuke’s sudden voice in a lull in the movie caught Makoto by surprise and he jumped, lifting his head. Sousuke’s eyes stayed glued on the movie, though, almost unblinking. "It was just before my twenty-second birthday, and I’d never… been with anyone. I’d had a few girlfriends and stuff but we’d never gotten that far. And I’d never even thought about doing it with a guy, so I always ended up like you do with this one… except I was a lot worse at hiding it." A sigh passed through his lips and he leaned forward a little to pick up his glass, his arm still around Makoto’s shoulders to pull him back against his side when he sat back. "I was working with people a lot more experienced than I was, in every way, and they would all just laugh at me when I got embarrassed and eventually I just… quit. I couldn’t take it. I quit the project and I almost quit voice acting entirely."

Makoto listened in silence, having eventually put his head back down to rest against Sousuke’s shoulder and one of his hands hand lifted to gently grip the man’s arm, his thumb gently rubbing skin.

"Never quit, Makoto," Sousuke continued, his head dropping to rest on top of Makoto’s. "No matter how impossible something seems, never quit. It’ll just make it worse. I hit a wall after I quit that project, and it took me so long to find the courage to audition for anything else, no matter what genre it was. It took me a while to learn to work with anyone else as well, after that… took me a while to learn to stand up rather than just let them win…" There was a brief pause, Sousuke’s attention focusing on the almost-forgotten movie for a moment, before he continued. "I won’t let you give up."

A small smile tugged across Makoto’s lips and the hand on Sousuke’s arm slowly slid down to lace their fingers together. He shifted to free his other hand from underneath himself and took the other man’s hand in both of his own, smooth, nimble fingers slowly working between and along Sousuke’s.

"I won’t give up," he said quietly, glancing up to Sousuke’s face once before returning his attention to the gentle hand massaging he was giving. "I’ll figure something out."

Sousuke tugged at his hand to free it from the relaxing grip and relaced his fingers with Makoto’s with a squeeze.

“ _We’ll_  figure something out.”


End file.
